METH ALARM RAISED

Edmonton Firefighters Being Trained to Spot Explosive Drug Labs

A boom in Edmonton methamphetamine lab numbers means the heat's on
front-line firefighters to recognize the explosive drug-cooking spots,
say dangerous-goods experts.

"How do you tell it's a meth lab? When you go skidding out of the door
on your ass because it blew up," said Edmonton's dangerous-goods team
Chief Davy Loewen with a wry smile.

Joking aside, Loewen says firefighters are being trained to quickly
spot the labs, which use poisonous and flammable chemicals like
solvents to cook the drug known as speed.

They're being warned to watch for "the smells, the ventilation ... the
(paint) thinners, the containers and (the meth-making chemical) red
phosphorous," Loewen said.

That volatile chemical mix means the labs easily catch
fire.

And responding firefighters don't always know what they're walking
into, noted Dr. Uwe Terner, technical adviser to the dangerous goods
team.

The lab fires need to be handled carefully, with help from the city's
dangerous-goods team and police, he said.

"If you don't have proper ventilation, you have vapours coming off
(the chemicals) and they can be flammable and also toxic ... Even a
light switch can set it off," he said.

"I think in one week (in March), we had three fires that were all
drug-related."

And within a week of those fires, another lab fire in southwest
Edmonton sent three firefighters to hospital with chemical burns,
Terner added.

Emergency crews responding to that fire found a meth lab behind a
false wall in a $250,000 house on Haddow Drive, said Edmonton police
drug-section Det. Darcy Strang.

"At this lab, there was quite a bit of toluene, and toluene is an
oil-based solvent and it doesn't act well with water," said the
U.S.-trained meth expert.

"So in order to put that type of fire out, you need special equipment
and special devices to do that, not just water.

"That (fire) sort of highlighted our problem, and after that we (the
police) sort of taught the dangerous-goods teams ... and went through
lots of extensive training about what to do when you enter a meth lab,
and some of the dangers."

Information gathered in California from meth cooks who had been
arrested showed a third of the cooks reported sparking multiple lab
fires, 20% of which were never reported to authorities, Strang noted.

There are other dangers found in the United States that firefighters
here will have to watch for in meth labs, added dangerous-goods team
technician Dave Kelly.

"They've found crossbows aimed at the door, booby traps, that kind of
thing," Kelly said.

Edmonton police have uncovered nine meth labs between September 2002
and the end of last month, said Sgt. Chris Hayden. A few years ago,
police investigated two to four small meth labs per year.

Several Edmonton emergency staffers - including Loewen, Terner and
Strang - will gather more meth-lab expertise at the 2003 Clandestine
Laboratory Investigators Association Annual Training Conference in
Calgary next week.